Nauru: How the Richest Country in the World Destroyed Itself
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- Опубликовано: 21 янв 2024
- Explore the haunting tale of Nauru, once a prosperous paradise and now a near-uninhabitable wasteland. Uncover the dark forces of human greed that turned this island into a cautionary environmental nightmare.
This guy is trying to hold the Guinness world record for the most RUclips channels
And I will subscribe to them all!!
Nah he's rebuilding since he's no longer a host for a lot of channel he use to host. This one is a Geographic replacement.
@@MelniaShadowwhat happened? what happened to the other channels why not the host anymore?
Yes worrying isn't it.
Does Simon create these channels then sells the rights and channels to others?
It's ironic that Nauru's exports enabled bumper harvests elsewhere in the world, but it was never able to grow its own food.
Yea im thinking.. okay and you cant bring in topsoil or hydroponics or find a use for limestone, something to make use of what phos is left without blasting craters? Some days i wonder if either the elites are kinda right about over pop or if nuke war would be a boon to longer term survivability.
Wow. Food for thought when no one was thinking. Well stated.
Meanwhile during those very same early years, Chile, Peru and Bolivia waged a war over the exact same resource: Guano = bird poop = phosphates. In the 20th century an artificial solution put an end to the crazy high value of it; the territory that Chile anexed at the north by winning this war, which used to be a large Guano exploitation now is a desert as well; and it also happens to landlock Bolivia.
@@freeculture Chicago Boys, Milton Friedman, Nixon, and Volcker made sure the democratically elected Allende did not secure a sustainable resource extraction. 1000s were slaughtered because they sought democracy and control of their own natural resources, copper and guano.
More on the Japanese occupation: Despite Nauru's phosphate being important to Australia and NZ, it was left unprotected since its mandate status forbade coastal defenses. The Japanese occupied Nauru between August 1942 and September 1945. The Japanese hoped to exploit the island's phosphate resources, and to build up their military defenses in the area. They were unable to relaunch phosphate mining but succeeded in transforming Nauru into a powerful military stronghold by building what's now Nauru International Airport using Chinese and Korean forced labor. They decided to deport the majority of Nauruans all the way to Chuuk in Micronesia. Still overpopulated with troops and imported laborers, the island was subject to food shortages, which worsened as the Allies' island-hopping strategy left Nauru completely cut off.
But that's not the only crazy part about Nauru's history, there was also the Nauruan Civil War between 1878 and 1888. In the 19th century, the immigration of Europeans, often lawbreakers, steadily increased. Traditional life had been disrupted by the introduction of firearms and spirits. During a marriage festival, as Nauruans were arguing about etiquette, a guest killed a clan chief's son with a pistol. To avenge this, in Nauruan culture this meant conflict, but because all the Nauruan tribes had firearms, it led to an all-out bloody civil war where Nauru's population was reduced from 1400 at the time to 900 after the civil war. In 1888, the German Empire intervened by restoring Aweida to the throne and confiscated everyone's firearms. Nauru was shortly thereafter annexed into the German colonial empire, as part of German New Guinea.
God this is the most DISGUSTING side of humanity . i watched a video of how france is treating new caledonia...and the issues with belgium WANTING to seperate its north and south. its SO ridiculous
@@joshuawargo6446
you sound a bit confused
“Unlike George Costanza we’ve never claimed to be marine biologists” is a high-quality line.
I’m a big pro mining guy having studied geology undergrad but Nauru is exhibit A for strip mining run amok. It’s a terrible tragedy and a method of mining that has damaged numerous ecosystems not just Nauru where it is concentrated and it’s effects magnified. Sustainable mining must be pushed hard to ensure we extract needed minerals with as little ecological impact as possible. It is possible to do but requires strong oversight and public input. As to seabed mining I have to go with the marine scientist quoted in this vid. They are absolutely correct in pointing out that we know less about our own sea floors than the surface of the moon. Fortunately, the cost of extraction remains extremely high and I don’t think will be easily solved in the near term. As such, until such time where we know more about the overall impact to marine biology and the environment I am pretty opposed to seabed mining. It’s dangerous and the impacts poorly understood. It’s simply not worth the risk. My two cents for what little they are worth.
Problem is, sustainable mining cuts into profits of the big companies that control the world economy. This means money flooding to politicians willing stop any regulations that would ensure lesser environmental impact. Passing such regulations (without an obvious loopholes left in), seems harder than simply forbidding mining altogether in small but important areas with unique biodiversity and fragile environment.
I study Environmental Engineering. We humans are fucked as long as companies have monopoly agreements between themselves. Money goes in just to stop more people from voting (thus lessening the likelihood of people being able to vote for their own interests), let alone elections having candidates that will actually hold these companies accountable.
Our only hope is learning to sustainably recycle everything so well, that it's actually profitable for companies. And to get that started we need strict regulations on collecting more resources through mining.
(And stop mining anything that isn't strictly necessary (minerals and stones with artificial value, such as diamonds and other "valuable" decorations for jewellery). There are people wanting to mine down Madagascar for pretty rocks. Showing off such things as "genuine" natural gemstones (ones not grown in a lab) should be made culturally frowned upon, the way many places look at real fur and ivory, or tiny feet on Chinese elderly. With horrified disgust.)
So what would happen if they brought in soil on the ships that they used to export the phosphate. Essentially replace 1 for 1 what they exported.
@@Demicron that's exactly what i was thinking of to.
If they did it right they would have only given a company the mining rights if that company would afterwards restore the area they had mined.
Is a system that is used by other countries to, and it ensures you end up (almost) where you started.
And even with those added costs the mining company still makes mountains of profit.
@@Demicron The problem there, besides extra cost shipping soil, is where is that soil coming from then? Where did that get tore up from? What microorganisms are you introducing to a new area not meant for them, invasive species of insects etc. Not to mention the soil wouldn't have the nutrients that are part of what was mined out, and if they did, what was the point of the mining in the first place? The phosphates are part of the nutrient base to soils after all.
We need to engineer products to be recycled easily, get money out of politics, not to mention that greed killed Narue the trust could have worked for them. The world seams to have the same mindset of tomorrow will take care of itself.
I love how Simon just decided that he enjoyed hosting a geographical channel so much that he just slaps a new label on it and starts to carry on like there was no change whatsoever. I actually watched a couple of this channel's videos before I realized it wasn't geographics. It wasn't until I saw Karl hosting that I noticed what happened. If Simon says, "Carry on, Gents!" Then carry on I will! Haha. You're the besticles, Simon
Nauru is not the only victim of this practice. If you ever go to Fiji, take a long detour to Rabi island, on the northeastern tip of the archipelago. It is currently home to all of the remaining (former) citizens of Banaba Atoll, in the GIlbert Island chain, which was literally mined into oblivion by the British. They relocated all the people to an island hundreds of miles away, in Fiji. The people of Rabi will tell you the full story of how greed and environmental destruction can make entire ecosystems unlivable.
It’s an incredibly sad story. I went to school with two Nauruan boys back in the 80’s. Even then we used to talk about what would happen when all the phosphate was gone.
whatever happened to your schoolmates?
@@lesliekilgore648 I don't know sorry. I was only at school with them for one year and I wasnt close enough to keep in touch long term.
ask them why their family lived with the motto “tomorrow will take care of itself” and why they all stopped working👍🏽
@@CaptainHGaming the air of superiority in your comment is pretty disgusting. Especially given you are part of a society that is doing exactly the same thing to the planet as a whole that the Nauruans did to their island. What's your answer to that question?
You know what they could have used? A monorail. Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook have one, and by gum, it put them on the map!
This was way more intriguing than I imagined. I'd never heard of Nauru before. People definitely need to hear this story.
The thing about that Leonardo the Musical: A Portrait of Love is that initially, it actually did well! When it debuted at Oxford, it received critical acclaim. However when it moved to the West End, it was put under new management, and it was this management that ruined the show by gutting the original music and scripts after the Oxford shows. At least one of the leading actors had to have singing lessons, and it was said the director did not even like musicals! Its first West End performance was on June 3, 1993 and by the time the performance ended, nearly four hours after the curtain first rose, most of the audience had departed. A victim of critical disdain and audience indifference, the show closed just FIVE WEEKS later on July 10.
More on that island Australia proposed: In 1963, the Australian government proposed to acquire all the land on Curtis Island (261 square miles compared to Nauru's 8.1 square miles) off of Queensland and then offer the Nauruans freehold title over the island and that the Nauruans would become Australian citizens. This included housing and infrastructure and the establishment of pastoral, agricultural, and fishing industries. The Nauruans said that they'd only agree to this deal if instead of becoming Australian citizens, they'd be granted sovereignty over Curtis Island for a new independent nation. But Australia of course rejected this and so, Nauru rejected this proposal and fought for operating their own mines.
Thank you for the info on the musical. As a fan of musicals, I saw the premise as intriguing, and was wondering why it flopped. Seems it was mismanagement all the way, but a pacific island can hardly be expected to comprehend the workings of western theater. Moral - never invest in something you don't understand.
Another Kim W and Cuban L
i googled the amount they invested
"At Moeller's suggestion, Minks convinced government officials to invest £2 million in the production, in an attempt to diversify the country's wealth from its historic major export, marine deposits rich in phosphates."
£2 million? That is not bad in comparison to investing 200 million pounds in a film project, for example. Nevertheless, it adds to the tragedy
I find it funny when it's obvious the writers throw something in the script with the full knowledge that Simon will not get the reference. Mob Psycho 100 was not a joke I expected in a video about an ecological disaster and a ruined state.
I was like does he even know what he’s saying? 😂
Good topsoil is worth less then pure phosphate. They could have used the profits from the pure phosphate to ship back lots of fill dirt and good topsoil
Okay. That use of the cut away tv effect, that works. Much much better than when it was just distorted Simon.
Distorted Simon. 😂🤣
Still a jump scare when you've only got the audio though 😅
Nauru would be an interesting place to experiment in land reform for the whole world. I know thats not really a stable economic system, but one that (even at a major economic loss right now) is important to study.
If the world was fair, perhaps the economies that benefited the most from Nauru's ecological destruction could fund projects led by universities and environmental institutions... and approved by their population to experiment on the best methods of reviving such a ravaged land.
In the long run, we'll all need to find the best practices to do so all around the world.
In that way, that carnage can benefit all human societies in the future
Nauru benefitted. Did you miss the richest per capita part?
@@Miner-dyne Some Nauruans did. Did you miss the qualification at 10:15?
they lived with the motto “tomorrow will take care of itself”, only to find out that it won’t
Not even 20 minutes since it was posted and I saw Fact Boi and clicked. Give the basement dwellers extra magic spoon for their awesome work!!!!
The company I worked for in the 1970's built equipment for sea-floor nodule mining way back in 1973! The ship was the Hughes Glomar Explorer.....
That ship was more about picking up a sunken USSR submarine
spai!
Does Simon ever sleep?! You produce so much content and I watch all of it 😂
Ever notice him praising the usage of cocaine? There is your answer.
Like all syndicated programs...or...video channels presented by a single individual, they are created or produced in a day or week. Then, they are released in the designated/programmed episode sequence slots. Interesting, though. Normally, you can determine the grouping of recording by clothes. It seems he wears the same funked shirt and jacket in all recordings.
Simon and his 17 clones are sleeping just fine.
Cocaine and cloning: how any big brain creates an empire.
So you should know that he's not the one doing the research and writing the script. He just reads it. That's good work, but not as overwhelming as if he was doing all of it.
That quote was one hell of a chilling way to end the video.
I hope this video get 1M views.
Without Doubt ..one of your BEST uploads ( I Think i have watched them all ... Dammn i'm sad ..but a fan ) ... THANKYOU... and still one of the most poignant... brilliant work Mr Whistler..;-)
My heart goes out to Nauru and it's people, but I cannot ignore the fact that their actions are reckless. The International Law is broken. Why should a country so far away be allowed to make significant ecological decisions on a region outside of their 'consequence zone.'
The government ran by Native Naurus continued to do the same thing Australia had done. Australia still gets most of the blame in my book but Australia can't get all of it. This is what I see so often on the internet they want to place 100 of the blame for a former Colonial countries woes on the colonial government when they do have the majority of the blame but the native governments also need to have some blame for problems that happen after colonialism was kicked out.
@@GrievousRebornyou don't mean to say that people who have been subject to an extended genocide of cruel subjugation for generation after generation may have lost the ability to self govern efficiently out of the gate? that when the oral histories and traditions of these people have practically been outlawed in most cases from being passed down, they only have scraps of culture, and all those still around know how to do is survive, rebuilding might be a bigger hurdle than any of their racist critics can imagine?
how absolutely unforeseen, certainly not a part of said genocide gameplan from day one. and by the way before you even try to respond, you do not have to be directly murdering people to be committing genocide.
@@GrievousReborn 100% correct. Same thing happening in South Africa right now.
@@nivisioncolonisation and subjugation had nothing to do with it😂
They are never capable of self governing in a modern society to begin with.
Look at Singapore, do you see them whining about British colonisation ?
@@nivisionoral histories and legends and such stuff matter for cultural identity for ceratain.
On the other hand, you are exactly the case he speaks about.
So no, the lack of oral cultures has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with just and ethical government of a modern country, plenty of nations that were as or more opressed and thriving, plenty of nations that had none to begin with, or moved away from their ancient grounds, and what do you know, manage to thrive, lack of legends has nothing to do with greed or corruption in modern days, or are they some animals and not humas capable of basic reasononig, is that what you claim perhaps?
Great video! Now Norway who have extremely much phosphate is looking to mine it, and people are afraid of the consequenses for the fjord the phosphate lies in. Thank you for showing this video, it is useful in regard to what we now are doing. We are also looking to extract minerals offshore which is even more dangerous. We need to value the environment a lot higher.
Norway is rich and educated enough so this won't happen
@@WildVoltorbexcept greed is very much a wide spread problem. As long as Norway don’t let foreign companies buy land for mining etc they might stave off it. But only time will tell
Oh we are so spectacularly doomed. Nauru gives us a stark warning, yet look at the leaders we have, look at the leaders we will have tomorrow.
Mostly commenting for the algorithm, but wow that intro hooked me immediately! 😮 Didn't expect the existential crisis at the end 😮
Well done, Morris! Beautifully written. And the George Castanza bit made me laugh!
It feels weird to hear a pop-culture reference come out of Simons mouth without him mentioning how confused he is about it because he’s no idea about it. I wonder if he knows of Mob Psycho 100. Probably not though
Never even heard of this country, very interesting video. Kudos
Always appreciate you and the whole team behind you for these educational and entertaining episodes about things we had no idea were things (and places)! See you again next episode!
Honestly, Simon, the Pedro Lopez episode did nothing to me, but this one broke my heart! Jesus!
This is the best channel you've ever started. By far. The production quality is just off the scale.
What are you on? The audio is muffled and worse then the video on the other channels.
@@JeffBilkins I dont like the font and color choices. The green makes sense because of the background color of the channels icon but black and white are usually what people use for labels in videos. The font is worse than comic sans lol. Combined with the green it reminds me of the matrix movies. If this were a science fiction channel it could make sense but if you want to be professional neither works.
We no longer need fire and brimstone preaching about a hell in the afterlife: we are in the process of making a hell here on earth to be occupied only by the evil who reject the love of the Divine, but by everyone- while we still breathe. As usual those who will bear the heaviest costs will benefit the least from the insane decisions that will teach the same lesson again only this time there might not be room for recovery. Depressed but grateful for the work that went into making this video.
g
I did my economics thesis on Kiribati in the 1980s, as an example of how national accounting was a misleading indicator for national income based on natural resource depletion. The sad thing is that Nauru was all predictable and predicted by various economic agencies, and that we ran full speed into the abyss nevertheless. All this stands perfectly as a forewarning for the planet: but what to do?
A grenade in a clown car is a very specific analogy.... I think Simon has some history with clowns he's not telling us about... 😂
This is SO depressing...not to mention how sad it is that SO many countries are STILL acting this way...despite everything, a LOT of the world STILL acts this way. ITS TERRIFYING for anyone trying to grow up and find a footing in this world.
Yeah. It is like being suic**** for 20 years, struggle, work, try everything. Have good periods, have bad ones..
Finally get into position that you get a chance at family, only to learn that now the world has an expiration date. Globally we ain't much better.
Really need a corection in our global system, where you can reach just enough. Not forever more..
All I know for sure being 39 in May.. Existence and self awareness as integral part of the universe, being able to see itself is trippy. Non existence comes for us all, but we can be kind and helpful to strangers. Spontaneous. In the moment.
We going to need lots of cooperation and little less competition.
Except with those that just don't know when to stop with wealth hoarding. You going to have 10% of people owning everything while the new generations race to the bottom.
How old are you? You hang in there..! It might be Chinese curse of "living in interesting times" but seems to me, whenever outside things got quiet, I would invent problems of my own. Do yourself a favor. Limit social media to yt, maybe some other site and close FB, INst, tiktok, and be present, try to nurse real friends irl..
When AI takes over social media, beside predicting algorhytms, with text and speach, they will eat all your time. You will never be able to know if it's a real person or AI. You hang in there, and interesting things will happen, with some direction and effort.
Live in the moment. Ditch your phone when with other people irl and you will already be better and more interesting then average person of your age.
Note to myself.. Stop doom scrolling.
We need MORE competition, NOT less@@relight6931
@16:04 Yes. My dad used to work there back when Nauru still owned it. It was called the Nauru Bldng. Spectacular building for its time. It's now been rebranded and could use a glow up.
Another channel? Keep them coming! They are one better than the other, love them all!❤
I said it before and il say it again fact boi, this channel is awesome, spot on what was missing from you
"Living through it was like taking part in the wildest most destructive party the world has ever seen"
That was just an isolated party, so it fizzled out pretty quick. The real one is the one we're all taking part in right now on a global scale. Just imagine how it will be remembered.
If there's anybody left to remember
the music is already slowing down, the booze is running out and we are all starting to feel the hangover
Then why do the elites and leaders of countries continue to block nuclear energy? It would fix the problem yet the very companies who say they work with governments who work to reduce fossil fuels use still block nuclear since we all know it's safe and would remove the use of fossil fuels almost entirely in industry? Why must we the regular people suffer while the rich continue to live there lives and throw more carbon into the atmosphere and just pay offset taxes? Why not do what will fix the problem? Maybe it's a conspiracy theory but I believe the elites are using the current climate change problem to create a peasant class so they can continue to do exactly as they have always done and not be forced to spend more money to fix the problems they created it wasn't us with our cars that caused this problem it was them with their factories.
Relax. Read the actual papers. Even the worst case scenario they predict is not what the alarmists claim.
In 1984 my company bought up the remains of a bankrupt UK office supplies company. They had made much of their money selling stuff like embossed printed letter paper to out of the way countries - like the Faroe islands and... NAURU. Nauru was probably their biggest customer at the time. So sad to see what has happened to this small island nation!
“Less damaging than surface mining” seems like a pretty freaking low bar
Helps put things in perspective. I appreciate the efforts.
One hell of a video thank you for your time and the effort from your team
God damn.... i had heard of Nauru before, but never understood anything about it until this video. Thanks for sharing
I had never heard of Nauru, thanks for opening my eyes, terrific vid Simon.
In South Australia a company called Sundrop Farms, created a farm using hydroponics and greenhouses. It has its own solar farm and desalinates water for the farm. Nauru could fo the same thing.
Thanks for sharing.
i swear i discover a new simon whistler channel every month for like the last 3 years
Dudes brilliant. Is there any subject he can't cover amazingly
Excellent video, thank you.
I had absolutely no idea about this island, and i live in Australia. Admittedly, I rarely watch news as its usually full of crap 😅.
Absolutely digging this new channel as well. The presentation format just flows so smoothly right through the whole video. Plus it helps to have a really, really good host 😂
You must have heard about the government sending refugees there.
some people only hear the narrative they want to hear@@deathbycheese850
You never heard of the Pacific Solution?
yet another channel i found Simon in, and that i will subscribe 😂
I love how you genuinely reflect the implications and parallels of this story in a global bigger picture.
We need to seriously study the effects of seabed mining before doing it. That's before it begins, not after it's been done for a while.
Manganese nodules also accumulate very slowly so they’re not a super renewable resource, although rewnewable resources don’t warrant ecological destruction either
Clicked like, but the history you tell is anything but likeable.
A musical written by a former roadie of a one hit wonder band.
What could possibly go wrong?🤔
Nauru is a showcase for the effects of culture and sacrificing now to build for a better tomorrow. It was a democracy that strip mined their island, spent nothing on saving topsoil and restoring land as they went, sold diplomatic passports to terrorists, laundered money for criminals and warlords, all while the people spent their money on luxury cars and (you forgot to mention) importing foreign workers to be their servants and work for them. Contrast this with Iceland that built a prosperous civilization on an arctic rock that has to rely on volcanos for their energy. If someone gave Nauru a billion dollars today they would do the exact same thing and would be broke in 20 years. Ultimately this is what will destroy us. Culture matters.
Great video. Really troubling.
I like topics you covered here
Great video Simon! I had no idea this country even existed!
impressively done video, just... wow.
Chilling episode and just what we need as we cry and wine about things that dont really mean much to our future inhabitants. Ride the good ride until it burns out and crashes? Have we as humans gone down this path before? Or will we get "smart" and change our ways? Thank goodness i was sober watching this one... Great job team
Wow, good lord. Six months ago I'd never even heard of this island, until it showed up in one of those "guess that country" games on my phone. They've already had a crazy history, and now are poised to potentially play an integral part in damaging the oceanic ecosystem. Incredibly educational video Simon, thank you and your crew!
On another note, I appreciate that you have a large internet presence because I gave up on TV a long time ago. Tbh I think you could easily just make a "Simon Whistler" hub here on RUclips and place all your channels within it, and people would just flock to it; I often find things of yours to watch just by searching your name rather than your channel names. Or you and your writers, editors, everyone who helps put these videos together, could maybe come together and make a company name or something, like SciShow has. Just one big centralized thing, you know. I've no idea if there's a businessy reason why you don't; maybe there is, and suddenly the word "centralized" is generally making me hesitant, but it at least *seems* neat as a concept...🤔
Simon, please make more for these!
Excellent, many thx…
Have you moved to a new office? Or perhaps just a different background with windows? I love tjs channel 😂
Pretty sure its just an angled green screen with a desk in the foreground.
I did not expect a Seinfeld reference but im all in on it!!
Nauru is like the story of my life. When times are good, I can't help but dine good, shoot off to some distant country with my kids having a blast, and they've grown to expect it, but when times are bad, there's only regret left - maybe I should've saved something?But hey, bad times will be replaced with good times, right?
We need more videos about places simon!!!
Very interesting story. Never heard of Nauru.
8:28 you just had to go with the easy boring fertilizer. Guano is perfect for gunpowder.
"I forgive you if you have not heard of Nauru. But you will not forgive *yourselves* if you ignore our story" is cold as ice as a quote. Hopefully deep sea mining really is the answer and a better future is in store for the people of Nauru. And if not, let's hope the collective world has learned their lesson.
mate... I hate breaking it to you but humanity is ignoring history of/for thousands of years. History that repeated itself as long as man is recording it. We did not learn a thing, we did not change... the proverbial ice berg is getting bigger and we are moving faster, right at it.
Unfortunately no one alive today will benefit from anything we do to mitigate climate change now and thus nothing will be done.
Deep sea mining to produce non recyclable batteries will do nothing in the long term apart from screw up another ecosystem in the name of short term profit.
At least we delayed the next ice age though, so yay us I guess lol.
Are you ignoring the reason they had phosphate to harvest in the first place? The island has been below water many times over billions of years to grow coral beds then birds added poop. You need both for phosphate. Sadly there is no hope for most of these islands regardless of us addressing climate change. People talk about not ignoring history then ignore the facts that the world has phases of glacial cooling then global warming. No doubt we are affecting the process but it is a process that happens naturally anyways. There have been 7 major glacial events with hundreds of minor local glacial events in earth's history with just as many warming periods that followed. Truth is until we enter our next cooling cycle the poles will continue to melt and ocean will continue to rise. If we go green tomorrow it slows the process but it will never stop it. There is also the reality that the earth is always one mega volcanic eruption away from a mass extinction or global climate event. Should we stop going green to make the world a safer healthier place, no, but also realize the our limitations and acknowledge all of our history not just the last few hundred years or so. Digging up our oceans is just asking for another ecological or biological disaster. Who knows what microbes they will stir up that have been breeding since life began from our deep ocean floors. You gotta be crazy to think it's a good idea without us first knowing more about the whole process from scientists, not company yes men.
As long as we don't know what dangers could come from deep sea mining we shouldn't do it.
Once we've opened that (Pandora's) box we can't close it, so we better be 100% sure it won't harm Earth.
Otherwise we do the same as the Nauru people did to end up in this mess.
Short term profit for long term pain/destruction, in the hope that in the future we might be able to lessen the problems we've created.
And as we see with Nauru, it isn't a given we're even able to turn back the destruction afterwards.
I have nothing to forgive. Nauru's leaders got conned by the same people who are conning people into investing in wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars. If you buy into that con, then you need the resources. If you mine the sea bed, you reduce the impact of future sea level rises because every cubic kilometer mined out is a cubic kilometer of sea level rise avoided.
Taking money from China to cut relation with Taiwan and then taking money from Taiwan to re-establish relation is a pro gamer move right there
What about conspicuously wealthy Nauruan Expats ?
Excellent video
As an Australian, this is the first I have ever heard about this tragic Nauru story ..........
"Tomorrow will take care of itself."
How desperately tragic. I honestly cannot help but sense a bit of fear. This really is the sentiment of the United States, and much of the West.
Ive noticed a doom culture among my generation. Particularly among women. Children are a plan and hope for the future. Millenials dont have children like our ancestors, dont have homes, I was just laid off last week. Our parents and grandparents printed money, made enemies with countries, moved our production off shore and ran massive deficits creating a rent seeking economy.
"Tomorrow will take care of itself."
I completely understand the feeling.
A new channel? Awesome!!
As an Australian I know the story of Nauru all too well. The second thing I think about when I hear Nauru is the questionable detention centre run by the Australian government.
They planned to develop the interior to house even more detainees, a terrifying concept.
Don't get into trouble.
Well.... they probably shouldn't have burnt down the $600,000,000 facility that was built for them. So they only had themselves to blame for sleeping in fire retardent tents.
So much for *Sunk* costs...
How many channels you got bro? Impressed by the grind tho
Great video, like the channel
Nauru would make an excellent terraforming experiment site.
Let them eat fish.
A welfare state that ends in poverty and a wasteland.
Who would have thunk.
To be fair, this wasn't riches to rags, it's rags to riches to rags.
A plot device of "The Jerk" with Steve Martin
This is a story about every nation right now...
There’s a Nauru tower in Honolulu near my mom’s apartment. So weird knowing the back story now
Quality. And on point
Nauru had an airline but nobody would fly on it. Because their rulers would divert it from scheduled routes to bring home Taro, other foods or alcohol for their consumption.
the late Alan Whicker went to the island to film in the early 80's and predicted even then the outcome shown at the end of this video
1:57 Isn't Kiribati supposedly pronounced "Kiribas"? Dunno if that's right but anyway keep up the good work Simon 👍🗺️
Does a climate-destroying corporation ever dispute allegations any way other than "vigorously?" Do they ever slap together a press conference to lazily deny their transgressions?
Never expected to hear a Mob Psycho reference from Simon of all people. Interesting.
The background music is annoying, but your stories always enlighten!!
The greed and inhumanity of humanity is genuinely depressing. How much money does any individual really need?
So is envy. When will people stop worrying about what the next man have?
Yesssss more content!
Heh, the joy of Simon talking about Mob Psycho while in all likelihood having NO idea what he is talking about
Heh, you don't come around here much, do ya? 😂
@soakupthesunman oh no, I do, and I cherish every moment of the in the eyes out the mouth delivery lol
@@giantred what? Go fish,
Thumbs up 👍 if you think Simon should do a video about deep sea mining
Goes to show, you cant blame colonists for everything. You give it all back to the people and just watch what they do with it.
Some peoples simply lack the capacity for self-control. There's a reason why certain groups also have higher rates of alcoholism, drug use, etc. As for colonialism, too many people these days will cry about the very thing that led to improved life expectancy, quality of life, etc in those countries and eliminated all sorts of inhumane, savage practices.
Unchecked human greed will see an oceanic diatoms collapse and all the horror that would ensue... And still not cease its greedy activities.
And it probably wouldn't even have anything to do with deep sea nodules. Just "normal" everyday modern consumerism pissing into the sea will eventually do it...
I remember reading about Nauru in an old National Geographic mag back when it was riding high, boasting about how rich it was. It showed the PM with a fancy limo and that hi-rise tower in Melbourne. Simon often references the 'government' or the 'elites' in Nauru but in a place with fewer than 10,000 people, those elites are how many people? A hundred, maybe?
Simon and his writers save my feed.